Zynga’s One Standout From Its String Of Sequels Has Been Farmville 2

Sequels can be risky business for embattled social game developer Zynga. They can extend the lifespan of a popular franchise like Farmville. But they also siphon away players from the original game.

So if a sequel doesn’t retain players well, it can cannibalize the player base

But Farmville 2, with its 3D graphics, . The game is really the one standout sequel in Zynga’s recent line of follow-ups including Cityville 2, .

Zynga just released some engagement stats today about the performance of Farmville 2. To underscore how big a risk Farmville 2 is for the company, the original game has been one of the top money makers for the company since it was launched in 2009. Even three years later, . That’s $57 million in one quarter alone or more than a half-million dollars a day. The company . All eyes will be on Zynga’s next earnings call, when the company will reveal how well this sequel has performed financially.

, 7.4 million daily active users and a healthy stickiness ratio of daily-to-monthly active users at 17.5 percent, . It appears to have peaked though, and has lost about 700,000 daily active users in the last seven days, according to the service.

That’s not necessarily something to be alarmed about though, because most social games peak early on and then decline while retaining the most lucrative players or “whales.” Even if active usage declines overall, revenues can still increase from a good title for months or years to come. The original Farmville was around for about eight months before it peaked in monthly active usage, but that was before Zynga had amassed its network of players on the Facebook platform.